I am a fan of game lodges…
However with the incredible heat at Machaba Camp in the Khwai Region of Botswana,
this was the fan I was looking for…
Luckily, elephants can cool themselves by flapping their ears.
and standing in cooling mud also helps!
I was at the camp as a guest of the Leopard ID Project…
This was the pair that we found on day 1.
The Machaba female and her cub.
He was keen to play, but mom was headed for the shade.
Shade!
Time for play…
We discovered this female later the same evening.
She was rushing back and forth, in a very stressed manner.
The drooling saliva is one of the external stress signs.
It might have been as a result of  another leopard in the area.
Time to buckle up and head back to camp.
Have you ever had a shower at a bush camp
and wondered where the water comes from?
Or what the back-of-house area looks like?
Chris Kruger, who is the operations manager, gladly took us behind-the-scenes…
As it was Chris who built the camp, he is proud of what has been achieved in a short space of time.
Instead of an electricity using cold room,
theirs is surrounded by charcoal in wire mesh that has running water to cool it down!
The “grey water” treatment plant…
It might just look like a couple of plastic tanks, but it is far more complex than that.
Power comes from solar panels…
Which in the current heatwave put out a stable and constant power source.
Possibly more than we can say for ESKOM back in South Africa!
Paraffin lamps are used to light the public spaces and pathways in the camp
When laundry needs to be done, there is a generator that can be turned on for the extra load.
A properly labeled recycling area.
Fenced off so that the hyena and other night time creatures can get in.
Back to the great outdoors…
It has taken me two unsuccessful trips to Chobe to try and get this shot…
I had an entire pod of Hippo yawning for me, less than 1km from camp.
While watching a leopard in a tree,
we spotted this small African BarredOwlet watching us…
So Whoo was watching Whoo?
JUST ANOTHER DAY IN AFRICA.
www.machabacamp.com
www.leopardidproject.com
www.sablogawards.com
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